goals

I don’t make New Years Resolutions. I’m not sure why, but I never have. I think it was something my old pastor said about resolutions being a temporary outer change, not an inner heart change.

Anyway.

I do have goals for 2013. About half have to do with writing my book. The rest are pretty random.

Make a pizza using homemade pizza dough, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Yes, I have a goal of learning to make my own cheese. It’s all because of a cookbook I got for Christmas. I’m also going to make homemade graham crackers.

Get a little better organized at running our home. I’m okay at it, but it usually ends up being at the expense of caring for me. I want to get things in better balance.

Teach another Bible study for our church women’s ministry. My goal this year is three, but I’ll be happy with two.

Study (not just skim) Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. As in highlighter, notebook, and pen in hand. What I’ve read so far has really changed my thinking about plotting and dialogue, so I want to really soak up this book.

Study Stein on Writing by Sol Stein. The man is brilliant, and I just pray I can absorb the tiniest percentage of that brilliance.

Study Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. This book got me through some wicked writer’s block in college, and I finally own it.

Finish my new novel! I haven’t done a ton of writing on this one yet because I’m outlining. Yes, I, Laura, who never outlined a single paper in college or high school, who despised the whole idea of outlines. I am outlining my new novel so I don’t run up against a brick wall like last time. If anyone says “I told you so” I’ll punch him or her square in the nose.

Read a lot of fun books and some not-so-fun books. I want to study theology in a bit more detail than I have in the past. I’m sure my husband can help with that!

Be a better mom. That is always possible.

Be a better wife. Again, always possible.

Be a better disciple of Christ. Always always possible until I stop breathing.

That’s it. I’ll probably think of others as soon as I hit publish. But these aren’t resolutions so it’s no big deal.

I discovered my math was a bit off for my novel. I only need to keep a pace of about 350 words a day to get to the length I want. I audibly sighed in relief when I figured this out.

When I created my spreadsheet with weekly goals I noticed it was adding up way too fast and then realized “Doh! I forgot to subtract the 35,000 words I’ve already written!” Then I realized I’d also divided by too few days. That’ll teach me to do math and post it on the internet for all to see. Again, doh!

But the wonderful thing is that by my correctly calculated pace, I’m not nearly as far behind. I’ll probably be able to catch up completely this weekend. Huzzah!

My goal for this year is to finish my novel by August. I think perhaps I might be mad. At the moment, the novel sits at 34,000 words, and I aim to triple that amount before I’m finished. To complete the novel by August would mean writing more than I have ever written in my life. In 8 months.

I thought I was nuts until some simple calculations revealed that my pace needs to be about 500 words a day. That is definitely doable. However, that pace means no weekends or vacations off. I’m not known for my consistency, so this will definitely test my perseverance.

To give myself an incentive, if I am on track by June 1, I will pre-order the final book in The Hunger Games series.

If not, I get to wait until September 1 to get my copy. Which will be pure torture.

Any ideas for other smaller incentives I could give myself along the way? Cuz I’m gonna need ’em.